53 bracelet events are now in the books, and the "big" event has now gotten underway - the $10k World Series of Poker Main Event.

Day 1a of the event is now underway. Day 1b will take place on Friday, Day 1c will take place on Saturday, and Day 1d will take place on Sunday. There will then be a one-day break, with Day 2a running on July 8th and Day 2b running on July 9th. By the 10th of July, the remaining players will combine into one field. From July 10th until July 14th, the players that are still alive will play down to the final nine. The final table will then take place in November, with a winner being crowned on November 10th, 2008.

There is no word yet as to what kind of a turn-out is expected for the 2008 WSOP Main Event. There is enough capacity for 12,000 players, though nobody is expecting anything close to that number. Last year there were 6,358 total players, which made for a first-place prize of 8.25 million dollars (which was won by Jerry Yang). The highest ever turnout came in 2006, when 8,773 total players turned out for the main event, which ended up being won by Jamie Gold.

Day 1a features a number of notable players, including: David Benyamine, Dan Harrington and Barry Greenstein. As always, there are a number of celebrities in the field as well. Ray Ramano, Jason Alexander and Mekhi Phifer are all playing on the first day of the event. All three are still alive; Phifer is doing the best so far, as he is currently near the top of the leaderboard.

Will another unknown player take down the 2008 Main Event? Or will a "pro" take down yet another bracelet at this year's World Series of Poker?

Just three and a half hours into the first day of play, a number of well-known players have already been eliminated, including: David Benyamine, Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot.

We'll post more updates as the 2008 World Series of Poker main event progresses.